Cardiff Blues v Connacht

[An Tarbh]

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Cardiff Blues v Connacht
Venue: Cardiff Arms Park
Date: Friday, 26 September 2008
Kick-off: 1905 BST Coverage: Live on BBCw/Setanta</div>

Coach Dai Young says the Blues are determined to bounce back from the heartbreak of last week's 28-20 defeat at Munster with the visit of Connacht.

"That was probably the best we've played all season," said Young, who was angered by a sin bin for Robin Sowden-Taylor that he felt decided the game.

"If we play like that week-in, week-out we'll win a lot more than we lose."

Mike Roberts and Michael Swift return to the Connacht team after injury.

Roberts will make his competitive debut for Connacht when he starts on the left wing.

Swift returns to the side having missed the 15-8 victory over Glasgow at the weekend and will partner Andrew Browne in the second row.

Johnny O'Connor, introduced as a replacement against Glasgow having recovered from injury, which kept him out of the first two Magners League games of the season, will start in the back row.

Young added: "All we can do now is build on the performance at Musgrave Park for the visit of Connacht to the Arms Park."

Martyn Williams, Ross Johnson, Rhys Williams and Sam Warburton remain on the Blues' injury list.

Captain Xavier Rush is close to a return, though, along with Deiniol Jones, Richie Rees, Tom James and Leigh Halfpenny.

Young's team are defending an unbeaten record at the Arms Park that stretches back to the beginning of January.

Connacht are on a high after their first win of the season, a 15-8 victory over Glasgow last Friday.

Their only win against the Blues was in Galway in 2005.

The Irish side claimed their only Arms Park victory against Cardiff, a 6-3 triumph in 2001.

Blues: tbc

Connacht: F Carr; A Wynne, J Hearty, M Deane, M Roberts; A Dunne, F Murphy; J Lyne, A Flavin, R Morris; A Browne, M Swift; J Muldoon ©, J O'Connor, C Rigney.
Replacements: S Cronin, R Loughney, A Farley, M McCarthy, K Campbell, I Keatley, L Bibo.

Referee: Carlo Damasco (Italy)

BBC Sport

 

[An Tarbh]

Blues doing an absolute number on Connacht who in truth are doing well to be only 46-0 down at half time, who knows how much the Blues will end up winning this one by.

 

[Sir Speedy]

:lol: @ Connacht. The Blues 2nd (?) try - the one where Sweeney scored - was a beauty.

 

[An Tarbh]

Further proof if it were ever needed that Michael Bradley should be bannished from the face of Irish rugby never to be heard from again.

 

[An Tarbh]

One slight worry for the Blues for me and it is only nitpicking but it would be Sweeney's place kicking, with no pressure on to be only getting half his kicks so far is a poor return.

 

[dullonien]

Couldn't carry on from where they left off in the first half, only managing to score 12 points in the second half. As sometimes happens when a team are so far ahead, they start trying to score from everywhere, offloading in every tackle and generally doing things that aren't on, resulting in lots of knock ons and turnovers. Overall though, a very good performance from the blues.

I personally thought Jamie Roberts should have been man of the match for his unbelievable first half performance, where everything good the blues did started with him. He showed his power, pace and ability to offload in the tackle, scoring one try and creating a few more. If I were Gatland, I'd start thinking of a Henson 12 - 13 Roberts midfield partership, where I believe Roberts would be even more devastating.

 

[Thingimubob]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dullonien @ Sep 26 2008, 09:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Couldn't carry on from where they left off in the first half, only managing to score 12 points in the second half. As sometimes happens when a team are so far ahead, they start trying to score from everywhere, offloading in every tackle and generally doing things that aren't on, resulting in lots of knock ons and turnovers. Overall though, a very good performance from the blues.

I personally thought Jamie Roberts should have been man of the match for his unbelievable first half performance, where everything good the blues did started with him. He showed his power, pace and ability to offload in the tackle, scoring one try and creating a few more. If I were Gatland, I'd start thinking of a Henson 12 - 13 Roberts midfield partership, where I believe Roberts would be even more devastating.[/b]

wasn't a brilliant second half, but teams do tend to do that when they wrapped up the game and the bonus point in the first half. Some superb Rugby played though, Roberts was superb, and I think it was a close run thing between him and Halfpenny for man of the match. To be fair to Connacht, they played some nice looking rugby in the scond half and I thought they were unlucky not to get a try.
Shanklin hasn't been superb so far this season, so a Henson 12 - 13 Roberts partnership should definitely be on Gatlands mind, since Henson is so good at making space for his team mates, and the fact that Roberts tends to break most first tackles anyway, should make the two a dangerous center partnership. Will be interesting to see who Gatland picks for the first November Test agains South Africa, though I would definitely like to see them started together in the match vs Canada.

 

[alexrugby]

58:0 awesome awesome result

Roberts, Sweeney 2, Halfpenny 2, Thomas, Thomas, Molitika, Filise, I think there were no players among 15 not to score

 

[feicarsinn]

yes there were? unless the other 8 non try scorers took kicks..

 

[Sir Speedy]

It seems that 'exaggeration' is an alien concept to you.

 

[feicarsinn]

:blink: whats an alien?